Weaving Drafts:
Compass Work 1

Compass Work 1 Drawdown

This watercolor drawdown and draft illustrate a weave pattern known as Compass Work (here titled "Compus Woark"). To record a pattern, a weaver creates a draft and/or a drawdown. A draft looks much like a strip of musical notation; a drawdown is a visual grid that illustrates a single weaving block. This drawdown was made by Frances Louisa Goodrich (1856-1944), who recorded weaving patterns she collected in and around Asheville, North Carolina. The pattern draft was given to Goodrich by Cumi Woody. The drawdown and draft demonstrate Goodrich's method of interpreting the patterns she collected. She pasted the originals into a notebook and created her own numerical version in a second notebook. She worked out the schematic pattern in visual form and painted a watercolor to illustrate the pattern block.


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